2021 — Present
Chef de Cuisine & Founder
Maya — The Candlelit Table
Founded a twelve-seat after-dark tasting room in Jhamsikhel. Designs a single nightly degustation drawn from the Valley and trains a small, quiet brigade.
Chef de Cuisine
Bishal Maharjan
An after-dark tasting room in Kathmandu — heritage Newari fire and Himalayan ferment, plated by candlelight as a single, cinematic degustation.
Reserve a seatKathmandu, Nepal
Chef de Cuisine
The Chef
Cooking in the dark
I cook after dark. The room is low and gold-lit, the pass is quiet, and across one long evening I send out a single, unrepeatable menu built from the Valley I grew up in.
My grandmother's Newari kitchen in Patan gave me smoke and patience; the Thakali bhattis of Mustang gave me restraint. Fifteen years across hotel brigades in Kathmandu, Pokhara and abroad gave me the technique to set those memories on a plate without losing their soul.
Tonight that means buff sukuti cured for a week and shaved like silk, gundruk fermented in my own crocks, jimbu bloomed in brown butter, and a yomari re-imagined as the last sweet note before the candles go out. Twelve seats. One seating. Food you remember in the dark.
Bishal Maharjan
- 15+
- Years at the pass
- 60+
- Signature courses
- 400+
- Tables lit
- 12
- Seats per night
Diploma in Culinary Arts, NATHM, Kathmandu · Certified Food Safety & HACCP Manager, Nepal Tourism Board · Advanced Fermentation Residency, Noma Projects (guest stage)
The Craft
At the pass
The disciplines behind every course — from heritage ferment to embers and cinematic plating.
Newari Heritage Cuisine
Himalayan & Thakali
Cinematic Plating
Fermentation & Ageing
Degustation Design
Wood Fire & Embers
Pastry & Petit Four
Pass & Brigade Command
Signature Courses
Plated by candlelight
A rotating book of signatures — heritage flavour set down with modern, cinematic technique.
IINewari · Small Plate
Sukuti, Shaved & Lit
Week-aged air-dried buff sukuti shaved to silk, timur oil, fermented chilli and crisp chiura, finished tableside over a low flame on a cold river stone.
IIINewari · Embers · Signature
Embered Choila
Flame-licked water-buffalo choila — mustard oil, ginger and the haze of dried red chilli — pulled straight from the embers and laid over beaten rice.
IVHimalayan · Seafood
Jimbu Smoked Trout
Godawari trout, cured and cold-smoked over jimbu and timur, with a chive-ash emulsion and pickled mooli under a thread of brown butter.
VThakali · Main
Thakali, Composed
Jomsom buckwheat dhido, slow-braised mountain goat, gundruk ko jhol and three house pickles — the classic set re-plated as one quiet, composed course.
VIDessert · Seasonal
Sea-Buckthorn Kulfi
Slow-churned kulfi laced with Himalayan sea-buckthorn, candied walnut praline and a wire of Lamjung wildflower honey, gold-leafed for the last light.
Kitchens
A path through fire
The hotels, lodges and tables that shaped the way I cook after dark.
2017 — 2021
Head Chef
Dwarika's Hotel, Kathmandu
Led the heritage Newari kitchen and a 40-cover fine-dining brigade, earning national recognition for a contemporary Valley tasting menu.
2014 — 2017
Sous Chef
Temple Tree Resort, Pokhara
Ran lakeside service and built a lake-to-table programme sourcing trout, buckwheat and seasonal greens from the Annapurna foothills.
2011 — 2014
Chef de Partie
Taj Lands End, Mumbai
Trained across grill, garde-manger and pastry in a high-volume luxury kitchen; learned the discipline of consistency at scale.
The Menu
Dine with me
Tasting room, private table, or consulting — each priced like a course on tonight's menu.
Rs. 14,000 / guest
The Candlelit Tasting
A twelve-course degustation across one evening at the chef's table — wine and local-spirit pairings, a hand-written menu, and the room to yourself.
Rs. 12,000 / guest
Private Chef's Table
The full noir menu cooked in your home for up to eight guests, candlelight and all, with pairings and tableside finishing.
From Rs. 1,75,000 / project
Restaurant Menu Consulting
Concept, menu engineering, kitchen workflow and brigade training to help a restaurant tell an honest, modern Nepali story after dark.
Rs. 5,000 / person
Masterclass & Demo
A hands-on three-hour class on Newari fermentation, embers or cinematic plating, for up to ten cooks and enthusiasts.
At the Table
What guests remember
We ate by candlelight and forgot the clock entirely. The yomari arrived in near-darkness and my mother wept — Bishal plates memory, not just food.
Anjali Shrestha
Host, Jhamsikhel supper club
Reservations
Reserve the candlelight
Tell me your date, your guests and the season — and I’ll set a menu around it. Twelve seats, one seating.
Reserve a seatJhamsikhel, Lalitpur, Kathmandu